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REPORT Oi>i jrk 

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FOR 



LITTLE ROCK. 

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JOHN NOLEN 

CAMBRIDGE, MASS 



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REPORT ON A 
PARK SYSTEM 



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LITTLE ROCK 
ARKANSAS 




JOHN NOLEN W LANDSCAPE 

CAMBRIDGE. MASS. ^ ARCHITECT 




Democrat Printing 4 Lithographing Co. 

"tms Aiik«n9ai House" LITTLE ROCK. ARK. 



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reface 



In submitting Mr. Nolens report to the citizens of Little 
Rock, we can not refrain from expressing a feeling of pride that 
the first step toward the acquirement of a system of parks and 
boulevards has been made. We now have a comprehensive plan 
prepared by an expert. We believe that the recommendations 
embraced in the report are feasible and that many of them should 
be carried out now; but it should be remembered that Mr. Nolen 
does not advise that all of his plans be put into immediate execu- 
tion, for the cost of doing so would more than offset the benefits 
derived. The public should acquire as much land for parks and 
rights-of-way for boulevards as possible with the money available, 
after setting aside a portion of the money to build necessary 
roads, drives, walks, etc. The improvement and beautification 
of the areas acquired would follow gradually as a matter of course. 
We suggest a large improvement district as the vehicle for 
carrying through to execution these splendid plans. This district 
should embrace the entire city of Little Rock and the surrounding 
property affected by the proposed improvements. In order that 
the property owners may know to what extent they are taxing 
themselves, a limit of expenditure should be provided. From a 
study of the requirements in other cities, and after a careful 
consideration of the local conditions, we believe that no attempt 
should be made at present to raise more than four hundred 
thousand ($400,000.00) dollars. And the bonds issued to secure 
this amount should not begin to mature for five years, and should 



Preface — Continued 



then be retired gradually, through a period of twenty years. In 
this way the burden will not fall heavily on anyone and the tax 
will be cheerfully paid by all patriotic and progressive citizens. 

We invite your careful perusal of the contents of this report 

and bespeak your assistance and support in this movement to 

make our city bigger, healthier and more beautiful. Suggestions 

concerning these plans, and new ideas will be welcomed. Please 

write or phone one of the undersigned if you have something 

to recommend. 

Respectfully submitted, 

LITTLE ROCK PARKWAYS ASSOCIATION. 

W. L. Hemingway, 

J. N. Heiskell, 

J. Merrick A^oore, 

S. W. Reyburn, 

G. B. Rose, 

C. L. Thompson, 

Executive Committee. 




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REDUCED MAP OF CITY. 



CITY OF LITTLE ROCK 

ARKANSAS 

GENERAL FEATURE5 Of A PARK SYSTEM 



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SAME MAP SHOWING AREAS TO BE IMPROVED. (FOLDED MAP IN BACK 
IS AN ENLARGED COPY OF THIS.) 




SUGGESTED TREATMENT FOR STREETS AND AVENUES. 



i ntroduction 



1. 

In the reservation of parks it should be clearly understood 
that the primal end is neither to beautify, nor to add a luxury, 
to the city's possessions. On the contrary, it is the profoundly 
important matter of securing a reasonably high standard for 
property development. Without reservations for parks, play- 
grounds, etc., and the proper platting of streets, the more influ- 
ential and independent citizens will go beyond the city to pleas- 
anter regions where streets shall be laid at easy grades, con- 
forming to the topography, and where ample reservation of open 
spaces will secure for all time the pleasant prospects appropriate 
to a region of homes. 

These are features which people in cities which have passed 
through the experience of park reservation have learned to appre- 
ciate and would not do without. Park reservation serves a 
distinctly practical purpose, providing always an element of 
permanence to a neighborhood which serves to fix the real estate 
values in the region. Owners facing a park know the outlook 
is thus secured for all time, and they build and settle with con- 
fidence. Business in some instances may encroach, but the 
desirability of the region, as far as open spaces are concerned, 
can never be seriously impaired, and property with secured advan- 
tages passes always at a premium over property unsecured. 

By some who have not followed the history of American 
park reservation, the question may still be asked of what use 



Introduction — Continued 



are these parks? Why do we need them at all? Why not secure 
the large return from the same land devoted to business? Why 
not continue the building of brick and stone over an unbroken 
area indefinitely as the city develops? The answer is that cities 
can never be wholesomely and economically built in this way. 
Especially in our rapidly growing American cities, it is vitally 
necessary to recognize certain laws on which wholesome develop- 
ment depends; precisely as we recognize laws on which the 
physical development of the individual depends. Never have 
cities entirely failed to appreciate the need for freedom and 
elbow room, so to speak; for contact with nature; for relief from 
the artificial and mechanical. 

A certain ratio should be maintained between the population 
of a city and the area reserved for open spaces. As the city 
develops, it is a short-sighted policy that fails to maintain this 
ratio — a policy which leads eventually to low property valua- 
tion, to slum conditions and to ill-favored succeeding generations. 
A certain complement of fresh air, of open space, of touch with 
nature, proves in the experience of cities vitally essential for 
wholesome development. Response to this need results in high 
grade development and in sound, unfluctuating values — two of 
the chief factors in civic well-being. 



Tn eecription of Hreas 
11. 

The areas recommended for acquisition and development 
have been classified as follows: 

A. City Squares, Civic Center and Capitol Grounds. 

B. School Grounds and Athletic Fields. 

C. Main Avenue System. 

D. Encircling Parks and Parkways. 

E. Reservations. 

Brief descriptions of these areas follow and their location 
has been indicated on the accompanying plan, entitled, "General 
Features of a Park System for Little Rock and Environs," scale 
1,200 feet to the inch. 

A. CITY SQUARES, CIVIC CENTER AND CAPITOL 
GROUNDS. 

1. Two blocks bounded by Fourteenth, Fifteenth, High 
and Pulaski Streets. 

These blocks, occupied at present with property of low valua- 
tion, occur about equidistant from the Capitol Grounds, West 
End Park, Mount Holly Cemetery and certain blocks southward 
along High Street considered for reservation. They also occur 
at the important intersection of Pulaski, High, and Fourteenth 
Streets. Such a breathing space in the heart of this section will 



8 Report on a Park System 

prove one of the most useful and practically remunerative acquisi- 
tions in the park system. 

2. The Civic Center. 

Little Rock at present has no distinct plan for grouping its 
public buildings. The advantage not only in having related 
departments of public administration closely associated, but in 
securing by means of a consolidated group of well-designed 
buildings a dignified and appropriate center, toward which the 
interest of citizens may repeatedly turn, is important. In the 
neighborhood of such a nucleus as at present exists in the City 
Hall, the Postoffice and the new Court House, the city should 
reserve certain blocks to provide an appropriate setting for 
these buildings and suitable sites for still other civic, county, 
or State buildings to be erected in the future. Detailed calcula- 
tions by those competent to make them would probably show 
that the community would best adopt a decisive, carefully thought- 
out policy for securing the necessary land in the near future. Such 
calculation by those able to estimate the city's ability to under- 
take and carry out the project would probably show that even a 
considerable outlay would be largely compensated for at once 
by increased valuations in the immediate region of the civic 
center, and that future returns from the adoption of so definite 
and permanent a policy would justify many times over the 
initial expenditure. 

We present two schemes, however, one to meet that condition 
in which, after careful investigation, there would seem no practical 
means for securing more land than merely to define a civic center. 
Such a scheme would none the less be an important step toward 
civic improvement. 



LITTLK H()(K AH1^\N.S.VS 
.STi:^' FOH A ( l\IC ( KNTRE 




PLAN FOR CIVIC CENTER. 



For Liille Rock, Arkansas 9 



In this case we recommend the reservation, as a public square, 
of the block opposite the present City Hall and fire house, and 
west of the old court house and its new annex. With the reser- 
vation of adequate building sites on the two other blocks facing the 
square, Little Rock could secure a grouping of public buildings 
that would definitely fix a civic center. 

The second scheme, however, suggests a more adequate 
provision for the future. It boldly attempts to break up the 
monotonous checker board system of uniform blocks and streets. 
It proposes the reservation of two blocks south of the present 
City Hall and fire house, the first of these between Markham and 
Second Streets, to become the building site for a new City Hall. 
Furthermore, it proposes the widening of these blocks by the 
deflection eastward and westward respectively of Broadway and 
Arch Streets, making virtually new thoroughfares in the civic 
center, and reducing the area of all the blocks east, west and 
south facing the civic center open space. In these new blocks 
there would be adequate building sites for three new municipal, 
county, or federal buildings. One of these would probably be 
required for city offices, a second might be an auditorium, and a 
third could serve no better purpose than a subsidized municipal 
theatre, where the production of good plays and opera would be 
as distinct an attraction as the city could well offer to prospective 
residents. Furthermore, two sites on Markham Street would 
provide adequately for a future museum and library, such as the 
city in course of time must require. At the opposite end of the 
civic center the central block shows a hotel, and at either corner, 
apartment houses, the one providing an adequate cafe, the other, 
shops facing outside the civic center. The whole group would 



10 Report on a Park System 

tell distinctly as a unit — the administrative heart of the com- 
munity. Properly designed in detail, the buildings would show 
to advantage from every point of view. Connection is shown 
between the proposed City Hall and the proposed inner parkway 
by a broad avenue, thus closely linking the civic center with the 
encircling parks. The land between the parkway and the rail- 
road tracks is also shown in reservation. 

Such a group, if the right means of carrying it out can be 
found, would be the most economically justifiable, for it means 
the elimination of uncertainty, repetition, reduplication; it means 
concerted effort upon a single perfectly definite and appropriate 
scheme. It is earnestly hoped that there will be sufficient faith 
in the stability of civic purpose in Little Rock to adopt the larger 
and much better plan. 

3. The Old State House. 

To this fine example of characteristic Southern architecture 
and to its grounds, a word of genuine tribute is due. It would be 
difficult to reproduce in a modern building the qualities of this 
old structure; at the same time its historic value is unique. As 
the city develops, it is the most important building to preserve — 
a significant relic of excellent beginnings in the early decades of 
the State. Its grounds, quite in the spirit of the building, arc 
suggestive of parks in southern Europe, a result partly of easy 
attention to their appearance, an effect readily lost by too scrupu- 
lous care. Due attention, of course, is not given to neatness, but 
this is still possible without disturbing irregular margins of the 
walks, moss in the pavements and about the fountain, and informal 
branches of trees and shrubs. With the addition of a little care- 



For Little Rock, Arkansas H 



ful planting, these grounds may become a lovely and truly appro- 
priate setting for the building. 

It is recommended also that the river front of the building 
be given especial attention. Here lies the possibility of developing 
fine outlooks over the water, for constructing possibly a terrace 
walk, for planting trees and shrubbery, and for securing in a few 
years at comparatively small cost one of the most beautiful and 
characteristic gardens in the heart of a Southern city. 

4. The Capitol Grounds. 

In the new Capitol, Arkansas has a building of great beauty, 
for which the present grounds form a very inadequate and unsat- 
isfactory setting. The acquisition of all areas not already a part 
of the grounds existing between Wolf, Victory, Seventh Streets 
and the tracks of the Iron Mountain is practically a necessity 
to secure appropriate surroundings. Furthermore, owing to 
particular adaptability for park purposes of the land beyond the 
railroad, and its location for the most part in a valley between 
the city and what must eventually be the most important western 
extension, it is recommended that the Capitol grounds be extended 
to include whatever land between the railroad and the river may 
not actually be required for railroad purposes. The shallow 
stream of Rose Creek within a comparatively small area in this 
section winds through exceedingly varied scenes, now over a 
pebbly bed surrounded by scattered cypress, now through a 
meadow with groups of willows, now through a little grove, and 
now through a rocky ravine— of small proportions but much 
beauty— under a bridge at a point suggestive of a beautiful 
permanent structure in keeping with surrounding nature, and 



12 Report on a Park System 

thence on to its junction with the Arkansas River, westward of 
the Rocky Bluffs. Such natural features are precisely the ele- 
ments to determine the site of a park, and while it has been 
impossible to fix any definite areas on the general plan, whatever 
sections may not actually be required by the railroad may with 
particular appropriateness form connections between the Capitol 
grounds and the River Bluffs. 

According to recommendations of this report, the river front 
would in any case be reserved, but this section north of the 
Capitol between Baring Cross Bridge and the mouth of Rose 
Creek, deserves especial consideration, and might appropriately 
have definite connection with the Capitol grounds. Here the 
bank rises to an imposing elevation above the water, and at one 
point is fortified against the current by fine rocky bluffs. Nowhere 
nearer the city are the views of the river finer or on a larger scale. 
The bank, where soil permits, is overgrown with shrubbery and 
vines, and heavily wooded; nearer the water, willows help to 
retain the sand of a beach constantly in use by the boys. A com- 
bination of circumstances and conditions makes this, of the 
entire shore, the most suitable for park purposes. At the top of 
the bluffs the proposed inner parkway follows somewhat the lines 
of Riverside Avenue. Walks and overlook should be constructed 
nearer the edge of the promontory, and there should be bathing 
facilities in some form, for which at present a demand so obviously 
exists. 

Such a reservation may be entirely separate from the Capitol 
grounds, or, with the intervening Rose Creek, may be more or 
less closely connected. The Capitol, in any case, should have 
dignified and adequate surroundings extending northward to the 



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THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE NEW CAPITOL. 



For Little Rock, Arkansas 13^ 

railroad. Whatever else is reserved will help to secure a beautiful 
entrance to the city, and may save from otherwise objectionable 
development the low-lying region adjoining the Capitol. Espe- 
cially strong is the recommendation for an ample foothold on 
the bank of the great river at the finest point in its course near 
the city. 

B. SCHOOL GROUNDS AND ATHLETIC FIELDS. 

1. School Grounds. 

The development of the school grounds to serve the purposes 
of play and open air gymnasia is one of the most important steps 
already taken by Little Rock toward the realization of a complete 
park system. The reservation in most cases of an entire city block 
for school purposes is an excellent custom. Two suggestions, 
however, are important; first, that areas much larger and capable 
of more satisfactory development for play purposes can usually 
be secured by locating the school building otherwise than in the 
center of the block; and second, that the planting of hardy 
shrubs and trees about the buildings and along the boundaries 
and sometimes as enclosures for sections devoted to various 
purposes of play, will be a genuine improvement. The growth 
and practicability of such planting depends largely on the selec- 
tion of species. Careful plans by a competent landscape architect 
had best in all cases be prepared to secure permanent results at 
small cost. 

2. Athletic Fields. 

While the school grounds offer an opportunity for the sand 
boxes and apparatus used by little children and small boys and 
girls, there should also be provided two further classes of play- 



14 Report on a Park System 



fields where boys between ten and sixteen and from sixteen 
upwards can have opportunity for the rougher and more seriously 
organized games. 

The extent to which city streets are used, often contrary to 
existing law, for ball playing, is evidence of the demand and 
need for these playfields. It is the fullest encouragement, not the 
repression of these wholesome impulses, which is desirable. The 
recommendation is made that three new playfields for the older 
boys and men, besides that already established at West End 
Park, be reserved; one in the easterly portion of the town beyond 
the tracks of the Rock Island Railroad, a block not yet precisely 



determined; one beyond the southerly termination of Main Street 



on a site well adapted for a playfield, and later described under 
D, 10, Park and Playfield; and a third at the junction of Four- 
teenth Street and Elm Street. The two latter should probably 
be reserved for negroes. 

The recommendation is also made that frequent playfields 
be reserved to meet the requirements of smaller boys, for the 
most part between the ages of ten and sixteen years. These 
boys will not congregate naturally at a great distance from home, 
and such a playfield should be, under ideal circumstances, within 
half a mile of every boy. Where playfields are not otherwise 
provided, they should be given a place in the plan for develop- 
ment of every park of considerable extent. Localities occur in 
most of the sites recommended for park reservation and described 
under heading Encircling Parks and Parkways. 



For Little Rock, Arkansas 15 



C. MAIN AVENUE SYSTEM. 

In the development of a city's traffic system, particular 
planning in the way of wider planting strips and perhaps restric- 
tions on abutting property should be given certain avenues 
designed more expressly for the use of pleasure vehicles. Such 
shaded driveways may profitably occur without interfering with 
traffic interests of business about every half mile in either direction. 

Since the question of shade for a large portion of the year is 
vitally related to the comfort of every individual who uses the 
pavements, the planting of these avenues, as of all planting strips 
in the city, is one of the most practical matters for consideration. 
An occasional well-shaded block is an illustration of what can be 
done to secure protection from sun and heat. To secure similar 
results for the entire length of all streets will prove one of the 
most gratefully accepted efforts of whatever commission has this 
in charge. Low hanging mulberries, euonymus, or myrtles, in 
this climate with comparatively little care, will overarch the 
walks, while larger trees more widely spaced will give practically 
unbroken shade for vehicles. 

Streets recommended as shaded avenues are: 

1. Broadway extending from the Civic Center to Arch 

Street Grove. 

2. Center Street from the Old State House to the Blind 

Institute. 

3. Commerce Street from Eighth to the encircling parkway. 

4. Rector Avenue from the River to Ninth Street, thence 

adjoining the park as McAlmont to the Bragg estate. 



J6 Report on a Park System 

5. High Street from the Capitol to Braddock Park. 

6. Victory Street from the Union Depot to the park at the 

junction of Fourteenth and High Streets. 

7. Pulaski from Water Street to encircling boulevard. 

8. Gaines Street from Water Street to Wright Avenue. 

9. Capitol Avenue from the Capitol to Rector Avenue. 

10. Eighth from the parkway at Rice Street to Rector 

Avenue. 

11. Eleventh Street from the parkway at Thayer Street to 

the City Park. 

12. Fourteenth Street from West End Park to McAlmont 

Street. 

13. Seventeenth Street from Griffith Street to McAlmont 

Street. 

14- Wright Avenue from Griffith Street to Pulaski Street. 

15. Twenty-first Street from Pulaski Street to McAlmont 

Street. 

16. Twenty-sixth Street from Griffith Street to encircling 

boulevard. 

D. ENCIRCLING PARKS AND PARKWAYS. 

While the reservation of open spaces toward the present 
business center of Little Rock is practically prohibited on account 
of high land valuations, there is still the opportunity of securing 
an excellent series of encircling parks, each serving a particular 
purpose in its immediate district and in the city as a whole. The 



For Little Rock, Arkansas 17 



connection of these areas by means of a continuous parkway 
brings the series into a complete system very much more effective 
in serving the community than were each reservation isolated. 

The following description indicates the adaptability of each 
section for park purposes, and its relation to the system as a whole. 

1. The River Bank. 

To reserve the water front for the public and to protect it 
from private occupation is especially important. At present much 
of the bank is taken up with untidy and unsanitary shacks of 
squatters; still more is taken up with business which derives no 
particular advantage from river front location. At practically no 
point near the center of the city has the public suitable access 
to the shore. Wide reservations will prove feasible eastward and 
westward of the city where extraordinary luxuriance of vegeta- 
tion offers desirable material in the development of a park. 
Nearer the center of the city, on the other hand, public holdings 
may of necessity be narrower, may even require filling and ter- 
racing into the river, but in any case should provide a continuous 
walk, and, if possible, a driveway. In the accompanying sketch 
we have shown k drive twenty-four feet wide extending from the 
proposed parkway near the old State House, where it passes by 
subway under the railroad tracks, thence along the river front, 
crossing the old levee and making connection eventually with 
Rector Avenue. Subways for carriages or foot passengers should 
make connection also from the other streets leading down to the 
water. The feature even more important than the drive, how- 
ever, is a broad walk, at least ten feet wide, which should make 
an appropriate promenade along the city's river front. 



18 Report on a Park, System 

The construction of such a drive and walk will, it is likely, 
involve far less expense if one or both are not entirely above the 
highest high water level. Such rises in the river are of short 
duration, and to good road construction occasional inundation 
could do no injury. With an adequate planting of trees and shrubs 
to screen the railroad and unsightly objects, and to enframe the 
views from particular points, the river front can be made far 
different from what it is, and a source of constant pride and 
enjoyment to the entire community. Acquisition of the entire 
river front is recommended, securing it for recreation and for 
such public landings as the purposes of commerce may require. 

2. Upper Rose Creek. 

In the development of a connected system of reservations, 
the upper course of Rose Creek should be included. From the 
River Bluffs and the Capitol Grounds a connection should be 
made with West End Park, three quarters of a mile distant. 
Something more than a mere parkway in the center of this region, 
which extends on either side of the railroad and promises to develop 
for residential purposes, will be more and more urgently required. 
Several blocks and parts of blocks extending roughly between 
Thayer Avenue and the junction of Marshall and Fifth Streets 
should be reserved, giving ample width on either side of the 
stream, providing the connecting link in the parkway and a 
development of the region to serve purposes of rest and play and 
the special needs of the neighborhood. As yet there are few 
houses on the blocks in question and the many fine trees will 
prove desirable features in the park. 



For Little Rock, Arkansas 19 

3. West End Park. 

This area of approximately twenty-five acres, ought more 
fully than it does to serve immediately the purpose for which it 
was reserved. We suggest a plan for development showing pro- 
vision for a full sized ball diamond, a grand stand and bleachers 
which may be increased to meet a large demand of spectators. 
Provision is also made for tennis playing, with a number of courts 
adequate to sustain considerable popular interest. A field house 
equipped with shower baths and lockers is shown between the 
ball field and the more rural section of the park. On pleasant 
evenings band concerts should be given from a terrace on the east 
of the field house, the people gathering on the surrounding lawn. 
To this portion of the park appropriate access should be given 
by entrances more or less formally designed, and a system of walks 
and paths should make circulation through the region easy and 
delightful. A small depression at one side is a natural suggestion 
for a pool, one bay of which might be adapted especially for 
wading. Adjoining this a small lawn enclosed with shrubbery 
should be devoted to the games and play of little children who 
might be brought thither by attendants. A small shelter expressly 
at their disposal should be provided as well as sand boxes, a 
pergola and benches. In all this section the care of the trees is 
important and the existence of any particular desirable ones 
should determine location of walks. Such a park will serve a 
daily usefulness in the lives of many neighboring dwellers. 

4. Griffith Street. 

From West End Park, a continuation of the parkway should 
extend toward the southerly portion of the town. Griffith Street 



20 Report on a Park System 



in this region has particular advantages as a route for a part of 
the way. The grades are good, there are few obstructions to wid- 
ening, the trees are fine, and the surrounding property of great 
interest and beauty. 

5. Riffel and Rhoton Estates. 

Beyond the logical extension of Twenty-fifth Street the 
Parkway, leaving the straight half mile stretch of Griffith Street, 
should follow in pleasant curves the topography of the somewhat 
irregular section beyond. A rough wagon road, at present a 
good bridle path, suggests a possible course and the recommen- 
dation is made that a tract roughly of fifty acres through this 
somewhat low rolling country be reserved for the particular 
purpose of inducing a higher standard for residential development 
in this attractive section of the town. The topography of the 
region and its many excellent trees, including unusual groups of 
old hornbeams, suggest its larger service to the community in 
the form of a reservation. 

6. Atwood Estate. 

Adjoining the RifFel and Rhoton property, but on a higher 
level and commanding a considerable outlook, is a broad, slightly 
rounded field of twenty to forty acres — according as one considers 
the bounds — between Twenty-seventh, Twenty-ninth and Wolf 
Streets. This, it appears, has already been selected for an open 
space. As a common or green, which the spot strongly suggests, 
the reservation unquestionably would be appropriate. 




WEST END PARK 

LITTLE ROCK ARKANSAS 

n' ' '1 1 1 1 1 1 — I ■ I 

lOA AO O lOO 90O too 

aCALK 

JOHN NOtEN LANDSCAPE ARCHtTfCT 

CAMbHiPiE MASS 



For Little Rock,, Arkansas 21 

7. Braddock's Park. 

From the lower levels westward of Thirty-first, Thirty-second, 
and Thirty-third Streets, the parkway should follow a rising 
grade into a parallel with Thirty-fourth Street, thence, avoiding 
corners and abrupt turns, across High into Thirty-fifth Street, 
thus making the connection with Braddock's Park. This inter- 
esting grove, largely of oaks and nut trees, is situated on a high 
bluff entirely concealing from its highest points the railroad that 
runs at its foot. The outlook is one of the best within the city, 
extending unobstructed across the Fourche Basin, marked with 
its characteristic cypress tops, to the ridge of Granite Mountain 
beyond. Within the park the westward slope falls steeply. Half 
way down, a small stream, dammed in its course, forms a pool. 
Farther down, the woods become dense and heavy. These are 
elements to be considered in the development of a park. Use 
might still be made of the pavilions already there, or of more 
substantial ones, for purposes of amusement or eating. Many 
smaller trees should be taken out giving the larger ones oppor- 
tunity for reaching their fullest development. Vistas, outlooks 
and open lawns should be arranged in accordance with the plans 
of development. Turf on the dry pebbly hill top would probably 
be difficult to grow and expensive to maintain, but there arc 
other serviceable ground covers, and together with shrubbery 
and a convenient system of paths, the spot could be given a new 
and delightful character such as only those who are familiar with 
such results can foresee. An area of some eighty acres is recom- 
mended for acquisition, considerable more than that to which at 
present the name Braddock's Park is applied. The region west- 
ward toward Thirty-fourth Street, which is steep and difficult to 



22 Report on a Park System 

utilize for residential purposes, and a few lots on the south side 
of Thirty-fifth Street should be included in the park. The latter 
would give the opportunity for adequately widening Thirty- 
fifth Street as a parkway. 

8. "Swaggerty." 

From High Street, Thirty-fifth Street descends in grade to a 
small stream of which "Swaggerty" seems to be the popular name. 
This stream derives especial interest from its location in the 
midst of what should be an important residential section. Between 
Nineteenth and Twentieth Streets, it flows southward in a ditch 
on the left hand side of High Street. Beyond this it flows through 
a succession of varied scenes in one block after another, diverging 
more and more widely from High Street. There are good trees, 
oaks, sweet gums, willows, nut trees in many picturesque groups; 
there are thickets of vines and shrubbery, elder, elderberry, grape, 
greenbriar, wistaria, and several viburnums. There are broad 
pools, attractive bends, an open pasture and a grove. The han- 
dling of such a stream is an important matter both for developers 
of adjoining real estate and for the community at large in its 
efforts to realize a higher standard of surroundings. Two courses 
are open, either the covering of the stream at large expense, using 
it as a sewer and in the course of time filling over it to make 
building lots, or, on the other hand, leaving the stream open, pre- 
serving its trees and shrubbery, keeping its attractive banks and 
curves, crossing it with appropriate bridges, reserving land of 
sufficient width on either side, saving the expense of putting 
the stream underground and of filling, giving up many possible 
building lots, but very greatly adding to the valuation of prop- 



For Little Rock, Arkansas 23 

erty adjoining. The latter course seems altogether preferable, 
especially as the stream occurs in the heart of a region where a 
serious need for open space is sure to arise. The reservation 
shown on the plan, indicating a mean width of three-hundred 
feet, will provide a succession of resting places and playgrounds 
which will greatly add to the attractiveness of the region to pros- 
pective home seekers. 

9. Arch Street Grove. 

The parkway from Thirty-fifth Street should make a good 
connection with Arch Street Pike possibly at its junction with 
Thirty-third Street. Thence on a slightly rising grade following 
Arch Street it should form one of the bounds to a grove of much 
value for park purposes at the logical extension of Broadway. 
Here are about thirty acres of good trees, oak, ash, hickory, on 
an even southerly slope at the termination of a main north and 
south axis of the city. Such a grove at this point should be 
regarded as a fortunate occurrence and secured at once for the 
park system. 

10. Park and Playfield. 

Beyond the logical easterly termination of Twenty-seventh 
Street the parkway should continue at easy grades following 
possibly, other considerations permitting, the natural brow of 
the hill, avoiding always sharp turns, and making connection 
with Rock at Twenty-fifth Street or Commerce at Twenty-fourth 
Street. This will have the advantage of providing a suitable 
termination for practically all the important north and south 
streets from Spring to Commerce in a broad, tree planted, encir- 
cling driveway. 



24 Report on a Park System 

Furthermore, beyond the parkway to the south and beyond 
the termination of Louisiana, Main, Scott and Cumberland, there 
lie two adjoining regions particularly suited for park purposes, 
the one, an irregular tract full of trees and dense thickets of 
luxuriant shrubbery, with a stream winding through it, and the 
other an open field of twenty-five acres, level enough for the 
purposes of play, and having at its northern end a rounded hill 
providing good outlooks over the fields and to the wooded slopes 
beyond the Fourche. 

In this region an ample playfield for boys and men, as well 
as sections devoted to small boys and children, will greatly repay 
its reservation. The adjoining section about the stream being 
unusually attractive should likewise be reserved. 

1 1 . Bragg's Creek. 

From the junction of Commerce and Twenty-fourth Streets, 
if this should prove, after closer detailed study, the precise loca- 
tion for the parkway, a connection should be made with Twenty- 
sixth Street crossing Bragg's Creek and following Twenty-sixth 
Street eastward past the Confederate and Federal Cemeteries 
and probably at a future time, continuing beyond Chicago, Rock 
Island & Pacific Railway into the suburban country eastward. 
For the present, however, the most important branch of the 
parkway would make connection with McAlmont Street passing 
to the north of the cemetery. Returning, however, to the crossing 
of Bragg's Creek and Twenty-sixth Street, we find another inter- 
esting stream draining the easterly section of the city, its three 
tributaries flowing from Fifteenth and East Streets, from the 
City Park, and from the region of the High School Playfield. 







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ul U l.ni.l; 1 UUNT AS NATURE PRESENTED IT TO US. 




AS WE HAVE USED IT. 



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^KANSAS 



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PROPOSED TREATMENT FOR THE RIVER BANK. 



For Little Rock, Arkansas 25 

The main body of the stream flows through Oakland Cemetery, 
thence south under the tracks of the Chicago, Rock Island & 
Pacific Railway, to the Fourche Bayou beyond. The High School 
Playfield and several adjoining blocks, through which the western 
source of Bragg's Creek flows, are important for consideration. 
Here, in what must eventually be the heart of the city, is the 
opportunity for still securing four or five blocks as open space 
and playfield. It is an opportunity likely soon to be lost without 
prompt action. Following the westerly branch of Bragg's stream, 
which through these blocks is provided with a variously walled 
and covered channel, we come just beyond at the junction of 
Nineteenth and Rock Streets to a broader open channel, over- 
arched with trees and banked with considerable luxuriance of 
shrubbery. At this point begins what, for park purposes, is one 
of the most naturally suitable places in the city. The great trees, 
the winding stream, the number of pleasing and varied scenes, 
the rolling contour of the ground, very suggestive in spots of typical 
English scenery, make the place particularly desirable for park 
reservation. The city has already a small holding south of Vance 
Street but the entire region ought to be secured forming a park 
continuous with the athletic field and its adjoining blocks. The 
opportunity for acquiring so beautiful a piece of pasture as that 
north of Twenty-first would be extraordinary in any city. 

12. City Park. 

Beyond the junction of Commerce and Twenty-fourth Streets 
and before the parkway connects with Twenty-sixth Street, an 
important branch should make direct connection with McAlmont 
Street and Rector Avenue, bringing the City Park thus more 



26 Report on a Park System 



closely in relation to the system. In the development of the 
City Park it is suggested that a larger use be made of shrubbery 
and that care be taken to allow this to attain its full natural 
development with as little pruning as possible. It is also sug- 
gested that an appropriate name be chosen commemorating either 
a citizen or suggestive of the higher poetical aspects of the spot. 
In Paris they give such names as Elysian Fields to their Public 
parks and whoever speaks the name has his thought tinged with 
the ennobling suggestion of the classic playfield. The custom of 
New York in giving so colorless a name as Central Park to its 
most beautiful possession is hardly one to be followed. 

14. The Cemeteries. 

In many of the Southern cities the Cemeteries possess great 
beauty. Solemn and sacred aspects are tempered with the delight 
of luxuriant vegetation. It becomes a pleasure to visit the spots, 
to note a rare shrub flowering here, a fitting monument erected 
there, on every side the evidence of sensitive care and devotion 
in realizing a scene of great beauty. Good plans, careful super- 
vision, systematic attention to the planting and cultivation of 
trees and shrubs, will make the cemeteries of Little Rock objects 
of great pride. The National and Confederate Cemeteries already 
are examples of neat and careful gardening and of good taste in 
the construction of masonry walls. Still finer results can be 
obtained by the larger use of shrubbery. To the masonry walls 
attention should be called, especially as this is a standard for 
the good workmanship in all similar construction in the park 
system. 



For Litlk Rock, Arkansas 27 



14. Lower Bragg's Creek. 

Passing the cemeteries and thence under Twenty-sixth 
Street, Bragg's Creek flows through a meadow already considered 
for residential subdivision. This area still requires drainage and 
the stream with its thickets of elder and hawthorn and its fine 
cypress trees should be kept open, the central feature of a neigh- 
borhood park. 

15. East Side Bank. 

As the parkway turns at the southeast corner of the ceme- 
teries, it rises to a higher level than the railroad, some forty to 
sixty feet below. 

For an extent of nearly a mile the steep intervening bank is 
one of considerable interest, not only for its outlook over the 
eastern country, but for the great luxuriance of the vines which 
in many cases overwhelm trees of large proportions. It is hard 
to see how this region of so abrupt a grade could be better utilized 
than for purposes of a park. All its healthy and larger trees 
should be preserved, every vine and shrub should be carefully 
considered, and a detailed plan for development should be 
prepared. 

E. RESERVATIONS. 

1. Hill Crest and the Grounds of the Waterworks. 

In the neighborhood of Pulaski Heights the views become 
imposing in all directions. The grounds of the waterworks, 
which will probably always be open to the public, are well located, 
giving fine views along the river in either direction and across the 



28 Report on a Park System 



Capitol grounds and the city to distant plains beyond. The 
adjoining region called Hill Crest possesses much ground so 
irregular as to be far more suitable for park uses than subdivision. 
The steep ravines, the high promontories, the particularly fine 
outlooks, should all be included in an extensive reservation in 
this region. On the map, however, it has been impossible to indi- 
cate such a reservation otherwise than with an outline purely 
suggestive, since the selection of such areas must always depend 
on actual topographical conditions and upon the best subdivision 
into blocks and house lots of the surrounding areas. To secure 
the largest results it is necessary to consider the region as a whole — 
to reserve the areas most suitable for parks and to subdivide 
compactly where the grades are most suitable for subdivision 
into house lots. 

It is important to note in this connection the many fine 
outlooks on the ridge road extending westward beyond Forest 
Park. Here are views comparable to the finest in the environs 
of almost any American city. Both southeastward and north- 
westward broad expanses of country extend to distant horizons. 
In Little Rock's outlying park system of the future these should 
form prominent features. 

2. Coleman's Creek and Rock Creek Parkways. 

With the extension of the city, successive ring parkways will 
be required to made adequate connection between suburbs with- 
out going to the center of the city as often as is still necessary in 
the case of cities poorly planned. For these parkways no better 
location can be found than the stream courses. Coleman's Creek 
and Rock Creek, respectively four and five miles from the center 



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A TYI'UAL SCENE FROM AN AREA SELECTLIi 1 i.lv A PARK. 




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ANOTHER SCENE FROM A PROPOSED PARKWAY. 




A PKETTY ALLEY TREATMENT. 



For Little Rock, Arkansas 29 

of the town, are well located, and the pleasant varying scenes 
along their courses — pastures, meadows, deep woods and sunny 
groves — should be secured while still easily within reach. 

4. The Fourche Basin and Granite Mountain. 

The Fourche Basin and the rocky slopes beyond are Little 
Rock's most important regions for a forest reservation. The 
Fourche lowlands, full of impressive trees and luxuriant under- 
growth, have many aspects suggestive of unwritten romance. 
Though part of this region is subject to periodic inundation, the 
absence of low vegetation, the traces of slime on the tree trunks, 
its solitude and impressive silence convey a sense of unwhole- 
someness and dread, perhaps a unique aspect for a reservation. 
On higher levels green pastures surrounded by unbroken forest 
suggest pleasant picnic grounds. Still higher, on the rocky slopes 
of Granite Mountain, the views become more and more extensive 
over the city and surrounding country. All of this land is the 
sort which well may serve the community of Little Rock as does 
Fontainbleau and St. Germain serve the community of Paris, as 
does Epping Forest the community of London, or the Middlesex 
Fells, Boston. 

In the possible event of deflecting the Fourche through a 
partly artificial channel into the Arkansas west of the city, the 
region might become less subject to inundation. This, however, 
has little effect upon the desirability of the site for the purposes 
of a public reservation. The submerged section is under water 
only a few days in the year, and while this makes it less suitable 
perhaps for picnic parties its unique character is only the more 
interesting to people walking or riding through to higher regions 



30 Report on a Park System 



beyond. Furthermore the enormous cypresses and the under- 
growth of hawthorn and alders together with the slow moving 
current of the stream are important elements out of which much 
can be realized. The construction of a few drives and walks 
through the region, ready access to various points of destination, 
to outlooks, summits and picnic grounds and a wise policy in the 
administration of the timber to serve the twofold object of the 
preserving the finest scenes and securing the largest financial 
return are steps toward the best development of the Fourche and 
Granite Mountain region. 

4. The Eastern Bayou. 

To these lovely oases great tribute is due, for no scenery is 
more characteristic of the South. Surrounded often by tall 
cypresses, they are gems of natural beauty readily adaptable for 
park purposes. The city should carefully protect them from 
injury as the suburban country grows, and should secure at the 
proper time each of these so-called lakes together with suitable 
shore margins and the connecting creeks. 

In conclusion, may 1 express my appreciation of the hearty 
co-operation that 1 have received from the city and county 
officials, from the Parkways Association, and from the citizens 
of Little Rock generally. 

Respectfully submitted, 

JOHN NOLEN, 

Landscape Architect. 



Cambridge, Mass., 

December 4, 1913. 



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Legend 






CITY OF LITTLE ROCK 

ARKANSAS 

GENERAL FEATURED OF A PARK SYSTEM 

roR the: city and environs 

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